Stone spreader



F. E. ARNDT STONE PREADER May 8, 1923.

Filed Oct; .12, 192, 2- Sheets-Sheet 1 EhArr-uflt Fatent M 8 mo MFG. (10., OF GALION, OHIO, A CORPORATION OF OHIO.

FRANKLIN .E. ARN'DT, or, GALION, 'oHro, ASSIG-NOR TO-THEGALION IRON wonxs &

" STONE SPREADER.

Application filed October 12, 1921. Serial No. 567,202.

T all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, F RANKLI E. AR NDT, a citizen of the United States, residing at Galion, in the county of Crawford andState ,5 of Ohio, have invented-certain new and useful Improvements in Stone Spreaders, of

which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to road making inachinery, particularly to devices for spreading so called road metal, such as crushed rock, gravel and the like upon a roadway.

I am aware of the existence of devices for this purpose but they all appear to possess a serious drawback. Such devices are ordinarily provided with runners and are trailed behind a truck which dumps the material into a hopper from which the material discharges on to the roadway and is placed thereon to a certain predetermined depth. The width 9 of these devices is ordinarily approximately ing the material thereinto, this, of course,

six feet and it is therefore necessary to make several trips along the roadway in order to cover the entire surface thereof with the material. In the ordinary spreaders this results in leaving a furrow between the successive covered strips of road and these furrows must subsequently be filled by shovelnecessitating'manual labor and involving pconsiderable expense. It is the overcoming avoid the formation of such a division furof this objection which constitutes one of the essential objects of the present invention which spreader having its supporting runners spaced inwardly from the endsso thatthe successive paths of movement of the device along the roadway may be overlapped to Another object is the provision of novelmeans for adjusting-the height of the discharge hopper with respect to the supporting runners whereby to 'vary the depth of the- 0 the layer of material spread will be thicker at one side than at the otherso that a crowned road may be formed. 7

The invention further resides in the provision of certain details of coiistruction of contemplates the provision of. a

the hopper and its mounting whereby the ad Justment will be facilitated, it beingjfurthermore a feature that the construction is com-' paratively simple and inexpensive while atthe same time the machine will be extremely efficient and durable.

To the attainment of the foregoing the invention consists in the details of construction andarrangement'of parts to be hereinafter more fully described and claimed, and illustratedin the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a side elevation of m device; Figure 2 is a front elevation w th parts broken away and in section; I

Figure 3 is across sectional view on the line 33 of Figure 1; and- Figure 4 is a sectional view on the line 44 of Figure 2. I Referring more particularly to the drawlngs, I have shown my device as comprising a hopper des'i nated broadly by the numeral 10 and ."orme of end frames 11 consisting of .a lower angle bar 12, a rear upright angle bar 13, a forwardly and downwardly inclined upper angle bar 14 and a forward an gle ha r 15 which is inclined rearwardly and downwardly. These end frames are covered with metal sheets 16 such as sheet steelof suitable gauge. The hopper further includes a rear wall 17 which is secured to the frame bars 13 and which is reinforced by upper and lower angle bars 18 and 19 respectively.

vThe top and bottom of the hopper are open and the lower portions of the bars 15 have secured thereto a plate 20 which extends to the bottom but which terminates at substantially the centers of the bars 15.

In order to support the hopper I provide apairlofrunners 21 which are L-shaped and which are spaced inwardly from the ends of the hopper, as clearly shown in Figure 2. Secured upon the top of the horizontal portion of eachrunner is a forwardly and up wardly inclined bracket 22 which extends to the upper forward edge of the hopper and this bracket is slidably engaged by guides 23 secured upon the plate 20, Secured-to the upper end, that is the vertical armof the runner, is. an angular bracket 24 to which is secured one flange of an angle bar 25, to the other flange of which is secured the upper end of a deflector plate 26 which is here shown as being provided at its edges Q I neeesoe with filler strips 27 and retaining plates-28 co-operating with angle bar's-E29- located at the forward corners of the hopper. This deflector plate 26 extends, inwardly of the plate 20 of the hopper in overlapping relation thereto so that when the hopper isin its lowermost adjusted position there will be no gap between. the plates 20 and 26.

In order that the hopper may be adjusted so as to regulate the height of its bottom above the ground, I provide an inverted U- shaped bracket 30 at each upper forward corner of the device, these brackets being se- Journaled cured to the angle bar 25.

31 provided through each bracket is a shaft outwardly of the through each angle bracket 24 is, a shaft 34 carrying a bevel pinion 35 meshing with the pinion 33. This shaft 34 passes slidably through the arms 36 of a bracket 37 secured upon the plate 20 at each side of the hopper. This end of the shaft 34 is threaded and mounted between the bracket arms 36.

Secured to the vertical arms of the runners are angle plates or brackets 39 provided with a series of-holes 40 within any one of which may be inserted a bolt 41 with which is associated a draft bar 42 carrying a clevis 43 for attachment of a draft chain or the like by means of which the device may be .drawn along a roadway.

Assuming that the device has been constructed and assembled as above described, the operation is as follows: The machine is trailed along a roadway behind a dumping truck, by means ofdraft chains or the like hitched to the clevises 43. Road material s'uch as'crushed stone, gravel or the like is constantly discharged from the truck into the hopper 10 and will of course pass through the latter and be discharged at the bottom thereof on .to the roadway. The thibkne ss of the layer of material spread by the device depends, of course, upon the height of the bottom of the hopper above the ground and this is regulated by turning the crank handles 32 so as to rotate the shafts 34 by means of the gearing disclosed and these shafts being threaded through the :nuts 38 will operate to move the brackets 37 up and down, as

the case may be, this result ing in corresponding movement of the hopper. i The plate 20 of the hopper slides under the deflector plate 26, as will be appar-' ent, and" owing to theoverlapping of'these plates there will never be any gap between theinregwdless of the position of the hopper. In some instances. as in making a crowned road, it is desirable that one end of the hopper be higher than the other and this is readily accomplished by turning one of than the other which will bracket with an operating crank handle 32 and provided at its, other end with a bevel pinion Journaled which is non-rotatably the tilting but this is amere detail of the.

construction.

v One of the most vital features of this device is thattherunners 21, are disposed inwardly of the ends of the hopper, so that when the machine has been-pulled along'one j side of a road and has deposited a: layer of,

material thereon and it is subsequently desired to run themacliine along the other side of the road for completing the spreading operation, the path of the second trip may overlap the path of the first trip,that is on the second trip the runners will travel along'the uncovered roadway while the hop per will project beyond the path of the runner toward the edge' of the material previously spread so as to discharge the material from-the hopper immediately against the edge of the first applied layer so that no furrow will be formed between the succes sive covered strips, thus eliminating all necessity for manual shoveling and leveling. A From the foregoing description and a study of the drawings it will be apparent that T have thus provided a machine of simple construction and ready adjustment which will efficiently operate to cover roads with any desired material to. a uniform depth of thickness throughout, the device being furthermore. adapted for forming a crowned road, the action ineve'iy instance being highly eflicient. I

While I have shown and described the preferred embodiment of the invention it is of course to be readily understood that l reserve the right tomake such changes in the form, constructionand arrangement of parts as will not depart from the spirit of the invention or the scope of the. subjoined claims.

Having thus described my invention. l claim: i

1. In a road material spreading device,'a distributing hopper, and runners therefor located inward of the ends thereof, the end portions of the hopper beyond said runners l comprising a pair of runners, guide braclr ets carried thereby, a hopper having an open top and bottom, guides carried by the hop per and slidable upon the guide brackets,

ill)

I stationary brackets extending from the hop;v

per, nut members associated with said eta tionary brackets, threaded shafts extending. through said nut members and gear operated means for rotating said shafts.

4. A road material distributing machine I comprising a pairof ground-engaging runners, inclined guides carried thereby, a hopper having an inclined front wall terminating short of the top thereof, a deflector plate rigidly supported from theupper ends; of

- the runners and extending in slidable over-- lapping engagementupon the inner surface. of the front wall of the hopper, guide brackets-carried by the hopper and slidable along said guides, and means for moving the no perwith respect to the runners.

5. A road material distributing machine comprising a pair of ground engaging runners, inclined guides carried thereby, a hopper having an inclined front wall terminating short of the top thereof,'a deflector plate rigidly supported from the upper ends of the runners and extending in slidable over- ,lapping engagement upon the inner surface of the front wall of the hopper, guidebrackets carried by the hopper and slidable alpng said guides, and means for moving the hop;

per with respect to the runners, said means comprising brackets rigidly secured to the frontwall of the hopper and carrying nonrotatable nut members, shafts journally mounted with respect to the runnersin advance of the hopperand having threaded engagement with the nut members, and

, means for rotating said shafts.

-6. A road material distributing'machine,

cogfnpitising a' pair of ground engaging runners, inclined guides carried thereby, a hopper halving an inclined front wall terminat- "ai T ing short of the top thereof, a deflector plate rigidly supported from the upper ends of .the runners and extending in slidable overlapping engagement upon the inner surface of the front wall of the hopper, guide brackets carried by the hopper and slidablealong said guides, meansfor moving the hopper with respect to the runners, said means comprising brackets rigidly securedto the front.

wall of the hopper and carrying non-rota:

table nut members,- shafts journally mounted with respect tothe runners in advance of the hopper and having threaded engagement with the nut. members, and means for rotgting said shafts independently whereby to effect lateral tilting of the hopper.

'7. A road material spreading machine comprising a pair of runners, upwardly and forwardly inclined guides carried thereby, a hopper having an inclined front wall: ex-

tending upward from vthe lowerend of the hopper and terminating short of the top thereof, a deflector plate operatively sup! 

